The Orion Engineered Carbons (Orion) Tank Farm Project in Zone 7 of the Coega Special Economic Zone (SEZ), in the Eastern Cape, was launched on Wednesday, the 02nd October 2024.
The project will supply automotive and manufacturing industries with carbon black feedstock.
Speaking about the project, Nonkqubela Pieters, MEC for Department of Economic Development, Environmental Affairs and Tourism, said, the opening of the OEC Tank Farm, solidifies the Coega SEZ’s position as a leading investment destination in Africa.
“Today, through this project, we are saving 7000 jobs in the region, jobs that would have otherwise been lost.”
The event celebrated the successful completion of the Project, which began in April 2022.
Corning Painter, Orion CEO, said the state-of-the-art Tank Farm enables the transportation of black feedstock oil from the Port of Ngqura for subsequent storage and utilisation in the production of carbon black, a crucial ingredient in the manufacture of tyres and various high-performance applications.
The Tank Farm has a storage capacity of two 18,000 m3 tanks.
Each tank has about 80 shell plates, of 19,2 metres in height and weighing a total mass of 289 tons per tank.
The facility is equipped with modern infrastructure, including a 5.4-kilometre pipeline from the Port of Ngqura to the facility. This cutting-edge technology ensures efficient operations and strict adherence to environmental regulations.
Themba Koza, Coega’s Acting Chief Executive Officer, said “the unveiling also underscored the culmination of effective collaboration between the Coega Development Corporation (Coega), the Department of Trade, Industry and Competition (the dtic), the Eastern Cape Provincial Government, the Transnet National Ports Authority, and Orion, safeguarding jobs in the region’s automotive and tyre manufacturing industries.”
Picture: Supplied